How to Ship Cupcakes

It is notoriously hard to ship cupcakes. When trying to ship cupcakes, there is that pesky problem of keeping the cupcakes from turning upside-down and the gift arriving as a frosted box rather than frosted cupcakes.

So How Do You Ship Cupcakes?

So how do you ship cupcakes? The answer is to use half pint mason jars as your cups! The mason jars are oven safe – you can bake your cupcakes directly in the jars. Put 1/4 cup of batter in the jar – leaving room for plenty of frosting – and place the jar directly onto your oven rack (make sure the lid isn’t on!). Bake just as you would your regular cupcakes.

When the cupcakes are out of the oven, wait for them to cool and frost them (most frostings will work, although I wouldn’t recommend using whipped cream because it doesn’t freeze as well). Then, seal the jars and freeze them. Once they are frozen solid, decorate the jars however you like (ribbons and gift tags work well), pack them well (broken glass is worse than smooshed frosting), and ship them next day air. If you are shipping them somewhere warm, you might also want to include an ice pack in the box to ensure that they stay cool during their travels.

Do you have another way to ship cupcakes? Please share it in the comments!

The Specific Cupcakes in the Photo

The cupcakes in the photo are brandied cherry cupcakes that I created for Paula Dean. Because I baked them in the jars, I was able to make them extra moist without fear of the wrappers falling off. They are loaded with brandied cherries and then drizzled with extra cherry syrup. They would make an outstanding holiday gift. Get the recipe on Paula Deen.

I bake pie in mini jars (the wide mouth 3 oz. jars) and ship them in the large Priority Mail flat rate boxes. They are a little bit heavy and a little pricey, but on the positive side, they have made it to the other side of the country safely and created really big smiles. I’m excited to try it with cupcakes!

I tried the mason jar method yesterday so that a friend of mine could take cupcakes to her boyfriend in Hawaii (he looooves my cupcakes), but the batter pulled away from the glass and made them look kind of weird… Should I adjust the baking time or something? Other than that it appears to have worked quite well!

If you happen to be shipping to a military loved one, reconsider if they are on a ship. They have limited capacity for disposal of anything but paper/plastic and have precious little storage for themselves. Just a thought. Some boxes are also taking upwards of 3 weeks for the sailors and Marines to receive them when aboard ship, so be cautious of homemade frosting.

Love it!!! I can now send goodies! I’d love to share this on my blog, if you don’t mind, you being featured of course! Stop by and see, or even join my linky party called A Themed Baker’s Sunday where this weeks theme is cakes! http://cupcakeapothecary.blogspot.com/Cupcake Apothecary

I just bought the jars yesterday, and am very excited to start making some today for some of my friends in College! I just had one question, and I hope it’s not a stupid one. How did you get the frosting into such a perfect dollop on top of the cupcake? I’m just worried about it glopping all over the place and not looking quite as neat.How did you do it?

I am going to try this today. I’m going to send one to comedian Chris Hardwick for his birthday, which is 11/23. A group of fans are all sending cards with a similar design, and whatever else we want. He’s had my baked goods before, so I know he’ll love it. I might make another for a friend. I just love this idea!

This is such a wonderful idea! I am so glad I came across your blog today because I was trying to figure out how to ship out cupcakes for Christmas. This is perfect! I do have one question for you though – you said to put about 1/4 cup of batter into the jar, place directly onto the oven rack and bake as you normally would bake the cupcakes….well since cupcakes usually bake 12 at a time..can I place 12 jars onto the oven rack?? Or do you suggest baking fewer at a time?

This is such a cute festive idea. I have a much cheaper solution though…. my husband was deployed to Kuwait during the holidays last year, so I went and picked up plastic tupperware. Many companies now sell small shallow lidded cups, which can be stacked. Many of these can be vacuum sealed, for long distance shipping, and they also come in packs of 6 or 12. The upside is they are inexpensive and also light. They add virtually no weight to the package. I frosted and filled the cupcakes, and they arrived frosting in place, right side up… all the way to the middle east!

Im sending cupcakes to uganda,africa to a friend and im trying to figure out the BEST shipping solution to get them there without ruining the frosting! please let me know what tupperware you used and if any dry ice etc.Thanks A bunch!

This is awesome! I’ve never shipped cupcakes before but my sister is now in Vermont and I’m in Illinois and want to send her some cupcakes for her birthday. One question though, how can I ship cupcakes if the frosting needs to be refrigerated? Thanks!

Stef, I stumbled upon your blog after seeing it on a friend’s Facebook page. I’m getting married next year but haven’t officially asked the members of my wedding party. I read about someone sending cookies with the message of “Will you be my bridesmaid?” but now reading about how you can ship cupcakes, I like this idea even better! Thank you for your wonderful baking suggestions, recipes, tips, and inspirations!

I’ve done this a number of times. I love shipping cupcakes in a jar!! I use the little 4 oz jars, bake enough batter so that it fills half of the jar and fill the remainder of the jar with buttercream, all the way to the top. Seal them up and ship them out. I typically just ship ups ground, which sometimes takes 3-4 days and they arrive tasting great! I’ve had one box take well over a week to arrive and they were perfect. I did try adding sprinkles to the frosting once, however they dissolved and left odd color blotches (even for ones that arrived next day). Have you used sprinkles, etc. with success? I’m wondering if freezing with the sprinkles on would help?

I’m planning to start my own online cupcake shop which i can ship nation wide. But, considering the risk of the cake being destroyed during the journey and considering that the courier, here in my country, are lack in responsibility. I’ve decided to sell just for the local customers..

Hi,I was wondering what type of mason jars you bought. Were they wide mouth or regular mouth?The link you gave us was for regular mouth mason jars but the pictures on this blog looks like wide mouth jars.

I work at a cupcake bakery and we always tell the customers never to refrigerate the cakes bc it makes the cake itself really dense. Is it the same effect with freezing? Also, will the frosting arrive in that smooth velvety form still, after freezing?

OMG this is a brilliant idea and a great find. I work for a lady who owns her own bakery using fresh organic ingredients: Daisy’s Desserts The only downside to that is not being able to ship orders because it loosing authenticity, freshness and beauty so we will definitely be trying this approach first thing Friday! Thank you for sharing. Check out our website http://www.daisysdesserts.com

This idea works very well. I make what I call J-Cakes. Layers of cake and frosting in a jar and beautifully wrapped. I do vendor events so the cakes with frosting keep well in the sun. No frosting melting all over the tables.* I’d love to share my blog with you all! MarishasCoutureCakes.com

Steph, thanks for your advice but I have more questions or rather a huge advice needed from you If I want to ship overnight a red velvet with cream cheese frosting in a jar, should I freeze/or refrigerate and ship with dry ice or should I freeze/ or refrigerate and send with ice packs.
Where do you buy a small styrofoam container that fits at least 6 jars.
And if i were to use a buttercream frosting would you even freeze the cupcake? does it defrost in good condition?

the jar idea is not cost effective, it looks nice but it is wasteful. the best way is a standard plastic 6 cupcake tray wit a large toothpick in the center or a plastic drink squire, you know the ones that hold the cherry. it prevents the cupcake from getting squished..and put a this side up sticker o it for the post office..with disposable cooling pad on the bottom they can last 5 to 7 days on the road and get from boston to California nice and fresh…

How long will they stay fresh without being refrigerated. Cupcakes normally shrink a little after a day does sealing them in a jar prevent this? I have a couple of my favorite recipes that call for fresh fruit to be baked in them or topped with fresh fruit, will sealing the jar keep them fresh and how long? Thank you so much. Can’t wait to ship to the grand babies.

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[…] a lot of time (I felt a little guilty not auctioning cupcakes, but shipping toffee is easier than shipping cupcakes – especially in the summer). I asked the winner if she’d like to jazz the toffee up a […]

[…] that because they can be sealed, cupcake push pops are a fantastic way to ship cupcakes (check out another way to ship cupcakes). For shipping, I recommend packing the push pop containers tightly with frosting and cake. The […]

[…] If you’ve never done this, I will totally vouch. IT WORKS!! I wrote a whole post on my results using white cake and some insanely delicious green frosting. Pictured here are brownies, from scratch, all baked and cooled and ready to eat right out of that jar. You will have to adjust your bake time (obviously), and then you will FREEZE whatever you’ve baked before shipping. I would not recommend this for long distances in the summer, but for 1-day mail in a moderate climate (or another bizarrely frigid winter) this solution is perfect! You can find the whole tutorial on shipping cupcakes on The Cupcake Project HERE. […]

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